Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Congress’s international affairs committees have been notified of the most recent sale to Israel beneath the Trump administration.
WASHINGTON—Amid a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, the U.S. State Division has accredited a multi-billion-dollar sale of arms and associated help to Israel.
A spokesperson for the Division of State informed The Epoch Instances that Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the Home and Senate committees on international relations have been notified of the proposed international navy gross sales on Feb. 7.
The announcement follows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conferences with President Donald Trump, throughout which Trump advised that the US ought to take over the Gaza Strip to rebuild the war-torn area and that neighboring international locations ought to take up the Palestinian refugees. Palestinians have began to return to northern Gaza because the peace between Israel and terrorist group Hamas holds.
They embrace $660 million for 3,000 AGM-114 Hellfire Missiles, together with related gear and help, projected to be delivered beginning in 2028. The principal contractor for the Hellfires, beforehand utilized in precision drone strikes towards Hamas management and fighters, is Lockheed Martin.
The State Division’s accredited navy gross sales additionally embrace “munitions, steerage kits, fuzes, and munitions help and associated gear for an estimated price of $6.75 billion,” with deliveries anticipated this yr.
The $6.75 billion sale will depend on “U.S. stock, the place obtainable,” based on the assertion. Contractors will embrace the Boeing Firm, TK Tactical Methods Firm LLC, McAlester Military Ammunition Plant, and L3 Harris Fuzing and Ordnance Methods.
That complete contains 2,166 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs, which Israel has utilized in strikes on websites within the Gaza Strip. It additionally contains 13,000 joint direct assault munition steerage kits for the Mark 84 bomb, a typical unguided bomb repeatedly transferred to Israel from the US in previous years, in addition to 3,475 related kits for the BLU-109 bomb, a bunker buster additionally beforehand despatched to Israel from the US.
The Mark 84 and BLU-109 are 2,000-pound bombs. The Trump administration ended the Biden administration’s pause on 2,000-pound bomb gross sales in late January.
“The US is dedicated to the safety of Israel, and it is important to U.S. nationwide pursuits to help Israel to develop and keep a robust and prepared self-defense functionality,” the Pentagon acknowledged, including that the gross sales “won’t alter the fundamental navy steadiness within the area.”
The present cease-fire was reached in mid-January. It put a brief halt to the most recent spherical of high-intensity battle between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, assaults by the terrorist group. Events to the negotiations included each the Biden administration and then-President-elect Trump’s Particular Envoy to the Center East, actual property investor Steve Witkoff.
The Epoch Instances has reached out to Congress’s international affairs committees for extra particulars on the gross sales.
The State Division’s announcement states that the proposal “improves Israel’s functionality to fulfill present and future threats, strengthen its homeland protection, and serves as a deterrent to regional threats.”
Israel perceives threats to its safety past Hamas’s actions within the Gaza Strip, together with doubtlessly from Syria and Iran.
In the meantime, Iranian strikes on Israel in October 2024 led to an Israeli counter-strike on the Islamic Republic. Iran has threatened to retaliate.
Earlier phases of the Israel-Hamas warfare have been additionally marked by conflicts between Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon and Israeli forces. Some Israeli forces stay in parts of southern Lebanon, although they have been required to go away by late January beneath an preliminary deadline that has been prolonged to late February.